The League of Hawk
by Defender of the Dogma
Summary: Hawk needs Dove. Hank needs Don. But what happens when Hank loses Don... in a variety of different realities? And then teamed up with himself? And what happens when Dove comes along? Written for if you're having problems with pain over losing someone; this may address some of that. Open to questions about loved ones dying. And please share this with someone who may be in such pain.
1. Intro

**Also, no one has commented yet. Be the first! I'm working on getting comments on all my stories, and this one is fair game! Limited time offer, and it doesn't count if you just put "a" or something. Or if you do flames. It must be an actual review. I will not post your name unless asked. Compliments = good, Constructive criticism = good. Be the first to review!**

 **And if you're missing someone, and and are still hurting, and I don't address something like your situation in this story, then feel free to write me about it! I may add something to the story, or I may write it in the comments, but you are important to me, and I want to help you. Remember, there is always the opportunity for healing, no matter who you are. I am there for you.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing, this goes for all chapters.**

 **Chapter 1**

Dove watched helplessly the Helinmores prepared to kill him. Don was supposed to be some kind of sacrifice, as far as he could tell. There was nothing that could be done. The Justice League was too far away; they wouldn't be able to save him. Don was going to die. He only wished he could have said goodbye to Hank first. This was going to tear Dove's older brother apart.

The lead Helinmore began some kind of speech, and Don resigned himself to his fate.

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"There has to be something we can do!" Hawk growled in fearful anger.

"There's nothing we can do." Batman denied. "We can't save him."

"We have to save him! He's my brother; he's the only family I have left! I won't accept that!"

Wonder Woman put a hand on Hank's shoulder. "I am truly sorry. But we have no choice in the matter."

Hawk turned away. "No…"

Wonder Woman gazed at him with intense empathy. Ever since Kasnia, she had been quite close to both Hawk and Dove; to see Hawk's agony and to know Dove was going to die tore her apart. Because there was nothing anyone could do.

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"Reaching subject's zone. Prepare to disengage."

"Preparing to disengage."

"Prepare for entrance, speed is priority."

"Roger that."

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"Monitoring beacon." There was a transmitter implanted in Dove, so when the Helinmores disintegrated him, the beacon would obviously stop transmitting, and they would know when it was over. Hank felt his heart hammering wildly, terror clawing at every fiber of his being. No, no, please no, this couldn't happen, Don couldn't die… Then the beacon stopped, and Hank shattered.


	2. Beam me up, Scotty

**Chapter 2**

\- a bit earlier

Don breathed deeply as the priest approached; knife in hand. The dagger raised. Then, without any warning, a giant portal tore the air, and a bunch of people jumped out, many of them alien. One with huge wings hovered above everyone with a small device in his hands, before clipping it back to his belt. Then he dove into the fray. Don stared. It was suddenly pandemonium. The newcomers all seemed to be incredible, passionate fighters, and the Helinmores had their hands more than full, despite the fact that the new people were greatly outnumbered.

Suddenly, another one of these newcomers materialized behind Dove. He must be a teleporter. He pulled out a knife, and slit Don's bonds. Don fell heavily; all circulation had long since ceased. The teleporter caught Don gently, and pulled him into his arms.

"Are you alright?" The voice was gentle, anxious.

"I'm fine. I… I just need to warm back up."

"Humans are so fragile." It wasn't spoken condescendingly, or as though Don's rescuer thought his race to be above Humans, he just seemed… sad. "And Ran-Tauns, sometimes."

Then a magnificent alien with four huge wings, high cheekbones and pointed ears alit next to them. "Retriever, there's been a complication. We need you to get us all out of here now." One of the aliens fired one of their projectile guns at the winged alien, but he merely deflected it with one of his wings without even looking. Dove had seen those projectiles slice through a reinforced metal wall. He spread his wings to give cover to both Don and the teleporter.

"Take us all out of here? But what about…" The teleporter's hands tightened around Don.

"We'll have to take him. Data says the fabric of time here is worn. Our coming here is tearing it apart. We need to leave now and try to return him later."

"I understand." Teleporter looked up, and Don felt himself disappear.


	3. The League of Hawk

**Chapter 3**

Don looked around. He was now on some kind of spaceship, along with all his rescuers. He could see them all now, and there were some that had not been a part of his rescue. And the strange thing was, they all seemed strangely familiar.

"Data; get us out of here now." The winged alien demanded.

"Yes, Alpha." An alien with multi colored hair and eyes, reached forward and pressed a button on some panel. Then, Don was almost sure he'd been sucked into Star Wars, because the hyperdrive had been hit.

When everything settled down, Don looked around in shock. "Okay… what's going on? Can I go home soon?" Everyone turned and looked at him in shock.

"Is… is that…"

"It can't be…"

"It's him."

Don was now thoroughly confused. Everyone seemed to be having some kind of intense emotional reaction to him. There were tears sliding down three of his rescuers faces, and everyone seemed to be in shock.

"Uhhh what? What's going on?"

"It's Don." The winged alien said. Dove had pretty much decided he was the leader. "There were complications, and we had to take him with us. He could be here a while." One of the people stormed out of the room, Don was sure he was crying. This made no sense at all. Then, one of the people walked over to him.

This one was taller than the average human, though he looked mostly like one. He had brown hair, and was one of the ones who had gone to rescue Don. He was carrying several weapons, was incredibly muscular, and seemed ready to fight on a moment's notice, not that in that respect he was any different from any of these others rescuers. He stared into Don's eyes. "You know who we are."

"No I…" Don stilled, staring into the eyes, the eyes that he knew so well, the eyes of… "Hank?"

The alien's (Hank's?) fingers traced over Don's cheek with such heartbreaking tenderness it was all Don could do not to wrap his arms around him and hold him tight. "Don." he whispered. "Don."

Don couldn't understand. If this was what he thought it was, then these people, all Hank, had to be from different Earths. But why? Why would Hank become some kind of interdimensional space traveler who was driven to tears by the mere sight of a version of his brother? When Dove thought about it, there was only one answer.

"I die don't I?" He whispered. "For all of you. I die, you can't save me… and now that's all you do. Save me, I mean. In all the realities."

"He looked so much like you." the Hank alien whispered helplessly. "So small. So gentle."

"Leave him alone." the winged Hank said, stepping forward, and brushing Don back with a powerful wing. "There'll be time enough to socialize later. For now, we need to introduce him to everyone, and make sure he knows where he is."

"How do I understand you?" Don managed. "You can't all speak English."

"We'll introduce you to everyone first. We all have translators, so we can communicate, but you would call us all Hank. So we have other names. I'm Alpha; I'm in charge. That's Hardware." He motioned to the Hank in front of Don, the one who had revealed them all to be Don's other dimensional brothers.

"Retriever is the one who teleported us out; he usually gets you out of whatever dangerous situation you're in." Retriever looked like an Andorian from Star Trek, but without the antenna. He seemed as though his pain was closer to the surface than the others, as though his wound was tortured day by day.

"Data is our information gatherer and ship operator and technician." Alpha gestured to an alien about Don's height, with a smaller build, and more reserved stance. He wouldn't look Don in the eye. He had light rainbow hair and eyes, and very light peach skin, almost white. He seemed softer than the others, and looked as if he had been emotionally crushed.

"Cannon is on strike team. He breaks things." Don figured his own brother, from his universe, would be on strike team. Cannon had large fully black eyes, with with slightly purple tinted skin. His hair hung down to almost over his eyes, and was very pale. He had a look of an android, devoid of color and life. His body was compacted, explosive, strength, packed within a body one would think couldn't possibly be so powerful. There was a heart rending loneliness about him, that spoke of a soul torn in two. He was the one that had left the room.

"Fireblaze is also on strike team. He breaths and manipulates fire. Don't worry; he can choose to keep his flame from burning. He also has a destructive energy he can emit around his hands and throw" Fireblaze was thin but wiry, with flame spilling from his mouth, as if there was an ever burning fire there. He wore armor with a distinctly otherworldly look to it, and seemed to embody antisocial. He was someone who was separate from the world, and liked it that way.

"Quicksand is strike team; he has enhanced speed." Quicksilver was well built but thin, with high cheekbones and pointed ears. He looked overall very aerodynamic, with a light armor that covered everything but his face. He had human looking eyes but black and catlike, without eyebrows. He had slight claws on his hands. His eyeing of Don was uninterpretable, but it gave Don shivers, though he was equally unsure of how to interpret those.

"Dagger is on strike team, he can materialize hand size daggers already in motion. He's new, hasn't been on a mission yet." Dagger was heavy built and strong, with intricate black markings all along his skin. Don was pretty sure they were natural. Dagger also had black hair that seemed permanently ruffled, and he looked like a natural born gymnast. And was looking at Don as though he were some long lost treasure. Right, he was new. That probably meant he had just lost his Don. Oh.

"If you're wondering why we're all basically humanoid, it's because this ship is best for humanoids, so that's what we have the most of. There are others, but this is the bridge crew. Now I'll show you around."

Don nodded, and followed after Alpha, gently brushing Dagger's hand as he went. He felt a slight shudder pass through Dagger's hand as they pulled apart.


	4. You've always been my hero

**Chapter 4**

"And this is where you'll be staying. It's one of the rooms for possible new recruits, but you can use it."

Don nodded. "Thanks, Alpha. And… I'm sorry about Don." Alpha tensed, then turned on his heel and stalked away. Don shook his head, and walked over to the bed, sitting down. He'd turned back from Dove a while ago, as there was no danger, despite Alpha telling him to stay Dove, incase there was an accident or something.

And that brought Don to something else. None of these people seemed healed. It was like they weren't able to 'get over' Don's death. And if that wasn't a weird thing to think about; your own death in past tense. But maybe they were from races that were more emotional; that had a harder time healing. And honestly, the fact that they were here said something. Honestly, you had to be kinda out there if you were running around the galaxy doing nothing but obsessing over saving your dead brother. If any of them were normal that would be a shock.

Don sighed, hanging his head. He had a lot of work to do. For one thing, there was getting back to his own reality; the transmitter would have blinked out when they reality jumped, and everyone must think he was dead. After all, the Helinmores would have left in search of another sacrifice after Don was stolen from them, and they wouldn't exactly go tell the heroes that Don hadn't been killed. And Don had been abducted onto their mothership, so the heroes wouldn't be able to investigate and realize Don wasn't dead.

And then there was the other thing. Don didn't want to leave. Not yet. He had promised long ago that he would protect Hank; that he would try to make sure nothing would hurt him, physically or emotionally. It was a hard promise to keep. But he'd done pretty well over the years. Of course, Hank had been hurt. They were superheroes, more over they were human; it was unavoidable. But Don had still protected him. And just because these weren't exactly his Hank it didn't mean they weren't his brother. It didn't mean he didn't care about them.

He had to help them. These were his brother, lost, lonely, broken, and vigilanting across reality. He couldn't let them go unhealed. Unloved. He'd made a promise. And he intended to keep it.

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"Hey Retriever. Thanks for saving my life out there."

"Don! I… it's nothing…"

Don stepped forward and hugged the teleporter. "It's not nothing; I would be dead if it wasn't for you. So, what race are you?"

"I… I am Raun - Taun."

"When we met… you said something about Raun - Tauns being breakable."

"He wasn't strong. He was little. But he was good at teleporting. He could go almost anywhere, because he seemed to know where things were, so he didn't appear in them. There were some little ones; they were trapped in their bus. And some boulders were falling. The young ones couldn't teleport yet, so Don went in there. He didn't have time to teleport the last one, so he pushed her out of the way. The rock hit him. He broke. He broke and I wasn't there. He broke." Retriever had tears streaming down his cheeks. "He broke." He sounded so vulnerable.

Don stepped forward, and enveloped the broken Raun - Taun in his arms. Hank sobbed into the closest thing he had to his own brother. "I see you so often. I'm the one that rescues you. You look at me like I'm some kind of hero. But I'm not. Don't you understand? I'm not!"

"Shh." Don whispered. "Yes you are. You've always been a hero. You've always been my hero."

 **Authors note: I am not done with Retriever yet, just so you know. More of him will be talked about.**


	5. He died because of me

**Chapter 5**

"We have a subject in danger, repeat, we have a subject in danger. Alpha strike team, assemble. Retriever is unable to assist."

Don hurried toward the bridge, wanting to know what would happen. On the bridge Alpha was barking commands. Don went to stand in the corner to keep out of the way.

"We're going to need to burn through about a K9 force of baddies. That means we're going to have to be fast. I want the entire Alpha strike team. The subject is in danger from factors other than his antagonists; he is on a timed death trap and is also under the effects of a serious disease; we've contacted Potion he gave us the cure; we'll give it as soon as the subject is secured."

Alpha continued barking orders, and Don felt something stab deep in his chest. 'Oh, Hank.' He thought helplessly. 'Would it hurt you so much to say my name?' When everyone was prepared to go, Don walked up to Data.

"Data, can I watch what them while they… uh, work?" Data gave a sharp nod, only managing a quick glance at Don's face before doing something on the control panel, giving Don a view of each of the Hanks in their current position on the ship.

"How do we have all those views?" Don questioned, simultaneously trying to understand the ship and this Hank.

Data's answer was quiet; nearly a whisper, and it broke Don's heart. "Micro cameras are implanted around each of our members; they're too small to see but they move around their designated persons and provide us with constant upkeep on their surroundings and actions." He glanced down quickly, as though expecting some rebuff, some harsh word.

"They're brilliant." Don murmured gently. "Who put them together?"

"I did." Data offered hesitantly.

"That's incredible." Don whispered with a smile.

"It's nothing." Data disparaged.

"It's not nothing. It's amazing. Congratulations." Don smiled at Data as gently as he could, treating the

older alien as though he was made of glass. Data smiled back at him, when Alpha interrupted.

"Ready for teleportation, Data."

"Roger that, Alpha." Data's nimble fingers flew over the control panel, and the Hawks were gone. The monitors showed each counterpart on their own screen, as they leaped into action, attacking some aliens Don had never seen before. Don couldn't help but feel his heat skip the way it always did when Hank ran into something dangerous.

He watched as Alpha took to the sky, soaring over the aliens, who seemed to lack sophisticated technology and ways to hit flying people. Not to say they weren't dangerous in hand to hand combat, and they had serious numbers. Alpha flew ahead, probably to rescue Don, while the others stayed behind and fought.

Fireblaze hit hard and without mercy, save to keep his victims from death and mutilation. He seemed to be able to manipulate his flame as a weapon that didn't burn, but that didn't mean he cared to save his victims from getting all degrees of burns. He also seemed a very impressive hand to hand fighter, moving quickly, and striking with perfect precision.

Cannon seemed to charge through everything and everyone; smashing them with superhuman strength. He also seemed good at hand to hand combat, though he used a different style, and less precision, more of a constant smashing approach, though he seemed trained.

Dagger seemed to take a flipping out of reach approach, opting to stay away from his actual opponents, hurling his daggers from his hands, along with his energy blasts (or whatever they were). His daggers seemed to render unconscious instead of kill, and dissipate into perhaps energy after leaving him a certain amount of time.

Quicksand was right in the thick of things, knocking aliens left and right, never stopping, never giving anyone time to hit him. Don couldn't tell much of his fighting style, due to his speed, but judging by his victims and what little of him Dove could see, he didn't seem especially trained beyond some of the basics.

There were some others; not on the Alpha team, but Don turned his attention to Data.

"Hey."

"I… hey."

"You don't seem much like the others. Not so much of a fighter."

"My race aren't very good fighters, not like that. I can fight, but I'm really more… tech."

Don gave a smile. "Sounds like my kind of place."

"It was. Right up until the day you died."


	6. Why him & It was my Fault

**Chapter 6**

Don slipped himself into Data's arms, and simply let himself be held. Data's arms tightened around Don's small form, and held him, rocking back and forth, sobbing brokenly.

"I couldn't save him. Why couldn't I save him? He trusted me. He trusted me to save him!"

"I know." Don rested his head on Data's shoulder. The alien smelled like peppermint, or something close. Don sighed to himself, a nearly invisible exhale that Data couldn't notice. If only Hank hadn't lied on Don's deathbed. Don was sure that his counterpart would have said something that would have eased Hank's pain, perhaps that would have even kept Hank from this ship. Well, probably not that extreme, but maybe.

But now what to do? "Hank, I think I died happy. He knew that you were okay, and that was enough for him. He's at peace now."

"He shouldn't have had to die. It was my fault. I killed him. If I had just let him come with me…"

"Hundreds of people, your father included, would be dead. And Hank, you couldn't spend every minute of every day with your brother. You had a life, you couldn't just spend it on him."

"But I was stupid. Popularity? Don was more important to me than that!"

"And if you'd known you were putting him in danger, you wouldn't have let him go. But you couldn't have known that. And what kind of kid doesn't want to be popular? That's not a bad thing. Choices… choices are good or bad based on how you make them at the time, not on the outcome. You made a choice based on what you knew: your father's lab had always been safe before, you already spent a lot of time with Don, and you wanted a social life. Nothing you did was wrong. Don knew that. It wasn't your fault."

"It wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me!"

"It happened because of something you did. That doesn't make it your fault." Don snuggled closer to Data, letting the tall alien rock him gently.

"Why did I survive?" Data whispered brokenly. "I should have died with him. It's not fair that he died and I didn't! He didn't deserve to die! He was a hero. I… I'm just me. It should have been me. Not him. He was too young, too innocent. Why wasn't it me?"

"He was a hero. And I know it shouldn't have happened. I know he was supposed to live a long life with you, and he was supposed to grow up with you, and that you were supposed to be the first to go, but it's not always like that. What happened was terrible, and… sometimes we don't know why people die. We have to remember them and love them, because even if they aren't alive anymore, they changed the world. And they changed us. We have to honor that memory; that person, because even if they aren't here anymore, they did change things for the better, and we can't just throw that away."

"Thanks. I just… it still hurts."

"You'll never forget him and you never should. But I promise it won't hurt as much later. It may not feel like it now, but you will heal. You will heal, but until that happens… I'm here. I'm right here for you. And I'll always love you."


	7. Leave me Alone

**Chapter 7**

"Ready for teleportation, Data." Alpha's voice came over the speakers.

"Roger that." Don slid out of his arms, and Data reached over, pressing a few buttons on the control panel. Alpha and the rest appeared, looking tired and battered. Fireblaze had a long gash down his arm. Don stood instantly.

"You're hurt!"

"It's not bad." Fireblaze disparaged, walking off. Don flew ahead of him and grabbed his arm.

"I don't care; I can fix it myself." Fireblaze growled.

"And I don't care; I'm not letting you."

"Get away from me."

"No."

"I said get away from me. I don't need your help."

"Well you're going to get it." Don said, crossing his arms. "Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way, but it's going to get done."

Fireblaze stared at Don. Don stared at Fireblaze. "I'm not going to convince you, am I?" Fireblaze ground out, narrowing his eyes.

"Not a chance."

"Fine. But keep away from me after that."

"No promises."

Don walked out of the room, a hand lightly around Fireblaze's wrist. Only once they were away from the others and Don was ready to start treating Fireblaze's wound, did Don started to speak.

"So, what race are you?"

"I don't want to talk to you. I'm only letting you do this because otherwise I'll use up more time than I want arguing."

"Well you're going to spend a lot more time arguing with me about this. I'm very determined."

"I'm not talking to you."

"I'm sorry about what happened to your Don." Don smoothed a numbing cream over the wound.

"I don't need that."

"While I'm sure you're made of stone with no feelings whatsoever, Oh Mighty One, I'm still using the cream."

Fireblaze huffed. "Right, because you're just the epitome of perfection, Oh Perfect One."

Don grinned. "Closer than you'll ever know, neanderthal. So, what's it like; throwing fire?"

"It doesn't hurt. I generate it around my hands, where it reaches a certain point of pressure and then it shoots out, like with a gun."

"You figured this out yourself?"

"No, I…" Fireblaze trailed off, then stood up abruptly. "I'm done here."

"I'll get to you eventually." Don whispered to the empty room. "I'll save you, Hank, I promise."

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"We've got another subject." Alpha informed Data, his second in command.

"What's the problem?" Data could tell that something was amiss, he had, after all, been the first person Alpha recruited.

"The area. It's technologically advanced with inhabitants that hypothesize about multiple levels of reality. The subject is under a heavy containment field, if we can blow the shield we can get someone in there, but they've got a disruptor shield around the subject, it won't let in any version of us. Our counterpart there must be a problem. Unless you've completed that droid, there's only one person that can save the subject."

"Not enough resources, it's slow work for the droid. Why are we even going there? We can't risk this subject on a rescue mission or anything else."

"We promised to save anyone we could without overly risking compromising ourselves, in the interests of our continued rescue missions and… you know what else. This falls under that category."

"I thought they were hypothesizing a multiverse."

"They are, and the danger level is huge. But… Data it's a potential 7 world. I know I shouldn't be compromising us like this but… you know I… you know that there's nothing more important to me than him. And if saving the subject gets in the way…"

"I know. It's your first priority. But, you know rule 2. Always save the subject as long as the risk level of our revelation or complete destruction is acceptably in the interests of continuing the mission. I think that applies. We can go."

"Do you really? You know this is important to me, more than anything else even rescuing some subject, and if I can't… I need you to tell me. Should we really go? It's just… if we didn't, and that one turned out to be the one…"

"I know. But like I said, rule 2. It's worth it."

"But how can we endanger the subject here?"

"Alpha, I know this is tearing you apart. But this subject risks his life on a daily basis. We can't protect him. I think it's his choice. You… know what happened to mine. He wouldn't want to let someone die because of him. It could even further compromise him if he learned we let someone die to save him. He could attempt to leave, and you know that would put him in danger; he couldn't get home without us, if he we can ever get him home at all."

"And if he gets home he'll put himself in danger; if he stays he'll insist on coming with us." Alpha sighed. "I don't like it."

"Who does? The point remains we're sworn to save him in these circumstances, and if the subject here gives his permission to help, then we have to go."

Alpha gave a small smile, though not truly one of joy. He hadn't really smiled for 10 years, 7 months, and 16 days. "I suppose you're right, Data. You usually are. Fine. We'll ask him. And I pray we won't have another's blood on our hands."


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